How to Make Organic Wool Felt

People have been felting with wool, perhaps since human started domesticating animals. Felting may even dates back earlier than that, our ancestors might have made felt from wool off Woolly Mammoths for all we know. Modern felting is done using mostly Sheep’s wool but other types of wool can be felted as well. Some felt are not made from organic materials, there are artificial felt make from acrylic and other artificial materials.

Wool Felt are made by compacting wool fibre using water, pressure, warmth and movement. The resulting felt can range from a soft material to thick rock hard fabric, depending on the duration of the felting process and the pressure used. During the felting process, you can decide if you are creating thick or thin felt (Thin felts are felt measuring less than 2 millimetres. Thick felt are felt of 2 millimetres or thicker).

The simple steps below shows how to make your own wool felt. If you want your wool felt to be an organic wool felt, you need to ensure you source your wool fibre from certified organic far.

Wool Fleece, Table, Bow, Soap – Felt Making

Step One
Source your raw wool fleece and card it yourself or buy carded wool to save time. You will need a flat table top, a bowl of warm water and a bar soap.

Step Two
Using your hands and fingers, spread the wool in the shape you want the felt, you can use a mat as indicated in the above picture to shape and determine the length and width of the felt. Dip your hands in the soapy warm water you have prepared in a bowl or just wet your hands with warm water and soap it.

Step Three
Using your palms, press firmly but gently on the wool, continue to press the wool and it will start to stiffen, the more pressure you apply the harder the felt gets. Try to apply pressure as evenly as possible. Turn the felt over and repeat the process. Congratulations! you have just made a wool felt! You can decide how thick of thin you want the felt by apply more layers of wool.

Share this:

Related

About The Author

Temi Odurinde worked in domain name registration and web hosting industry for many years before becoming a web entrepreneur. He is passionate about web and mobile technologies.
Temi contribute mainly to Haba Naija Internet and Technology sections. He has a BSc in Computing and Psychology, a postgraduate degree in Internet Technologies.

Outside work, he love Oral Storytelling, long distance running and playing Volleyball.